Lack of options can cause people to snap, experts say

Irvine police on Feb. 8, 2013, released surveillance photos of Christopher Dorner, which they say were taken on Jan. 28, 2013, at an Orange County hotel. Authorities say the photos are believed to be the most recent they have found of Dorner. Irvine Police Department

"A man is nothing without his name."

Christopher Jordan Dorner, the former police officer accused of killing three as part of a grudge against the Los Angeles Police Department, wrote thousands of words in his so-called manifesto.

These seven hint at a sense of despair, of hopelessness, of a person stripped of his identity, with nothing to lose and nothing to live for, according to theories about his state of mind offered by mental health and law enforcement experts.

After three days of the search for Dorner – a manhunt that resumed Saturday in the snowy mountains of Big Bear – details of the fugitive's life point to many possible triggers that police suspect sent him over the edge, coldly determined to take others down with him.

Rage at being fired from the LAPD in 2009. Rage about a home that went into default. Rage that his marriage ended quickly.

A naval career that fizzled.

Feelings of isolation growing up as a black kid in a predominantly white neighborhood.

Accusations of paranoia from an ex-girlfriend.

The public grabbed onto these and other tidbits from his past as possible explanations for the way could have gone over the edge. Dorner, 33, surfaced as the suspect in the slayings of the daughter of a retired LAPD captain and her fiancé whose bodies were found Feb. 3 in Irvine, as well as the shooting of three police officers in Riverside County – one fatally – on Thursday.

It's a morbid ritual that plays out after every shocking act of violence from Columbine to Aurora to Newtown to the recent slaying of a doctor in his Newport Beach office, with the public collectively asking:

Why did this person snap?

Medical experts, law enforcement veterans and those who have experienced going off the edge – or teetered close to it – say trying to find a logical explanation for inherently illogical acts is a doomed exercise.

"That's not going to happen," said Dr. Valeh Karimkhani, chief of psychiatry liaison services at Hoag Hospital Memorial Presbyterian in Newport Beach. "It makes a lot of sense to them (what they are doing), but not to the rest of us."

Yet common themes emerge when exploring what drives some people to erupt in violence against themselves or others.

One major theme is the sense, in the perpetrator's mind, that all options have been exhausted – that there is nothing left to carry out but the horrific violence itself.

Irvine police on Feb. 8, 2013, released surveillance photos of Christopher Dorner, which they say were taken on Jan. 28, 2013, at an Orange County hotel. Authorities say the photos are believed to be the most recent they have found of Dorner. Irvine Police Department
Christopher Dorner graduated from Cypress High School in 1997. He played football there and was featured in the 1997 yearbook titled "Everything Under The Sun."
Christopher Dorner is seen in this photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles Police Department
Tanya Brown, sister of Nicole Brown Simpson, was suicidal and institutionalized briefly and now is a mental health advocate. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A manhunt continues across Southern California for Christopher Jordan Dorner, a former Los Angeles police officer, who has threatened to kill police, is being sought in two Irvine killings and is a suspect in a shooting that killed one officer and critically wounded another.
Christopher Dorner, suspected of killing three people, is seen in a photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles Police Department
A bullet-damaged Los Angeles police vehicle is taped off by police on Thursday Feb. 7, 2013 in Corona, Calif. Christopher Dorner is suspected of the shooting of two LAPD officers who were sent to Corona to protect someone Dorner threatened in a rambling online manifesto. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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